Yvonne R. Wearren
August 11, 2013
Mrs. Yvonne R. Wearren, 78 of Atmore, passed away Saturday, August 10, 2013, at her residence. She was born February 14, 1935, to the late Alonzo “Tom” and Grace Shaw Rowell. She was a member of Robinsonville Baptist Church and retired from Vanity Fair.
She is survived by her husband of 60 years, Rudolph Wearren; one son, Randy (Holly) Wearren of Bay Minette; two daughters, Brenda (David) Smith and Shannon (Garrie) Singleton, both of Atmore; one brother, George Tommy Rowell of Chattanooga, TN; eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday, August 13, 2013, at 11 a.m. from the Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home Chapel with Bro. Phil Johnson officiating.
Burial will follow in Canoe Freewill Baptist Church Cemetery.
Visitation will be held Tuesday, August 13, 2013, from 10 a.m. until service time at 11 a.m. from the Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home.
Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Suns Stun The Wahoos 8-6 In 16 Innings
August 11, 2013
Chris Gutierrez and Derek Dietrich homered in the top of the 16th inning, completing an incredible comeback for the Jacksonville Suns over the Pensacola Blue Wahoos 8-6 on Saturday in front of the 25th sellout crowd of the year at Pensacola Bayfront Stadium. The loss dropped the Wahoos to fourth place in the South Division, three games behind the Suns.
The 16th inning was made possible thanks to a five-run ninth from the Suns. Trailing 6-1 entering the frame, Jacksonville loaded the bases with one out and got a run back on an RBI single from pinch-hitter Sharif Othman to make it 6-2. Loek Van Mil relieved Drew Hayes and promptly gave up a grand slam to Isaac Galloway on an 0-2 pitch to tie the game at six.
The Wahoos dodged Suns rallies in 10th, 12th, and 14th innings before building their own rally in the last of the 15th. Pensacola loaded the bases against Jacksonville’s Michael Brady, but Yorman Rodriguez struck out, sending things to the 16th.
In the 16th, Chris Manno (3-3) came on and yielded a leadoff homer to Guiterrez and a two-out shot to Dietrich to give the Suns a two-run lead. Arquimedes Caminero worked around a two-out single in the last of the 16th to pick up his fourth save of the year.
Pensacola had jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the contest through six innings. The Wahoos scored five runs in the first four innings, including two RBI base knocks from Mike Costanzo in the first and third innings. Travis Mattair, Rodriguez, and Devin Lohman contributed RBI’s as well in the first six frames.
Jacksonville started its comeback trail once Pensacola starter Josh Smith exited the game after six innings. Smith struck out five in his six scoreless frames, but had to settle for a no-decision. The Suns scored a run in the seventh against Shaun Ellis to cut it to 6-1 before the ninth inning heroics.
The game was the longest in the Southern League this year in terms of innings played and also the longest in Wahoos franchise history in both innings and time (5:01).
Pensacola will look to rebound in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. Carlos Contreras (1-1, 3.05) takes the ball for the Wahoos while the Suns will counter with southpaw Andrew Heaney (1-1, 5.00).
Florida Sheriffs: Keep ‘Stand Your Ground’ As Written
August 10, 2013
The Florida Sheriffs Association is no longer neutral on the state’s controversial “stand your ground” law.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, the new president of the association, announced Friday that members agreed earlier this week without opposition to support the law “as currently written.”
“Our current judicial system is comprised of multiple checks and balances to ensure fair and equitable application of all laws, including ’stand your ground,’ ” Judd said in a prepared statement.
When the National Rifle Association-backed law was approved in 2005, the association remained neutral on the issue.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican who supports “stand your ground” and whose subcommittee will hold a hearing on the law, called it enlightening that a group that “has traditionally been tepid” on the law now “recognizes its value.”
“I think they recognize that Florida is a safer place when our citizens don’t have a duty to retreat and run,” Gaetz said.
The voice vote Tuesday came with 57 of the state’s sheriffs in attendance.
The law, which grants legal immunity to people who use deadly force if they reasonably believe their lives are in danger, is one of the targets of a group of protesters, led by the Hialeah-based Dream Defenders, who have remained around the clock at the Capitol for 25 days.
“Stand your ground” has come under heavy scrutiny since the July 13 acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of teen Trayvon Martin in Seminole County. While Zimmerman’s defense team did not use the “stand your ground” law, the debate over the shooting at times focused on it.
The protesters also want legislation advanced that ends zero-tolerance school discipline policies and support initiatives meant to combat racial profiling.
As of Friday afternoon, 28 lawmakers — all Democrats —- have filed petitions with the Florida Department of State requesting a special session on the law.
The proposal is an effort to circumvent the opposition to a special session by Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leadership.
If 32 legislators make the request, all 160 legislators from both Republican-dominated chambers would be polled. A special session would be held only if three-fifths of the members supported the idea.
The sheriffs association took up the issue after House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and Attorney General Pam Bondi said they would like to know the view of law enforcement on “stand your ground.”
Weatherford had said he would be open to considering changes if law enforcement clearly outlined that any changes were needed.
“I appreciate the input from the Florida Sheriffs Association regarding ’stand your ground,’ ” Weatherford said in an email Friday. “Getting feedback from Florida’s leaders in law enforcement is critical to the Legislature and will be important as we hold a hearing on the law later this fall.”
Weatherford has directed Gaetz’ Criminal Justice Subcommittee to hold a hearing this fall.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported that the protest attracted 38 people to spend Thursday night at the Capitol, confined to the area outside Scott’s office on the first floor. The number was up from 12 the night before.
The cost for Capitol police to watch the protesters has now reached $361,654, of which $143,017 is in overtime pay, according to the FDLE.
Century Approves Updated Personnel Policy
August 10, 2013
The Century Town Council has approved a new personnel policy to give the mayor more control and eliminate the need for direct council involvement in some employment issues.
The changes were prompted after May’s termination of a lower level employee by the council in a special called council meeting. The employee was repeatedly late for work.
Under Century’s previous employment rules and regulations, the mayor was the town’s top boss, but the mayor could not fire an employee without a vote of the town council. And, under those same town rules, the Mayor could not make his termination recommendation known until a special meeting of the town council was underway.
Under the new policy, the mayor will be able to discipline and terminate employees without input from the council; the employee can then appeal their punishment or termination to the council for a final determination. Similar policies are in place at governmental agencies throughout the area.
For more information about the public firing of a town employee last May, click here for a previous story.
Pictured top: Four of the five members of the Century Town Council. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Escambia Man Arrested On Child Porn Charges
August 10, 2013
An Escambia County man was arrested Friday morning on child pornography charges after investigators determined he downloaded sexually explicit pictures and movies of children from the internet onto his computer.
Dylan James Lucius, 19, of 1872 Loyola St. was charged with 22 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of possession child pornography with intent to distribute.
Lucius was booked into the Escambia County Jail on a $47,000 bond.
Agents with the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force initiated a search warrant at Lucius’ residence on August 8 after he was identified via the internet as downloading child pornography.
Additional charges are pending, and the investigation is continuing to determine if he transmitted files and/or downloaded additional child pornography, investigators said.
Task force members from the Office of Homeland Security assisted.
Escambia Man Gets 20 Years For Drugs, Car Chase
August 10, 2013
An Escambia County man is headed to prison for two decades on drug and fleeing law enforcement charges.
Antonio Emmanuel Moorer was sentenced by Circuit Judge Ross Goodman to 20 years in state prison for possession of controlled substance, failure to appear, aggravated fleeing/attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, and driving while license revoked as a habitual offender. Moorer pleaded guilty to the charges against him.
On July 16, 2012, Moorer was arrested for possession of cocaine and marijuana by the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. He failed to appear for his court date on these charges and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
On February 14, 2013, deputies located Moorer in the Montclair neighborhood. He subsequently led deputies on a high speed chase, ultimately losing control of his vehicle and crashing into another vehicle. At that time, Moorer got out of his vehicle and ran. After a brief foot chase, deputies apprehended him.
Missing Alabama Teen May Be In The Area
August 10, 2013
A search is underway for a missing endangered juvenile from Alabama that authorities say could be in the Pensacola area.
Jakera Latoya Wilson, 15, from Frisco City, Alabama, ran away and has been missing since July 28. The Escambia County (FL) Sheriff’s Office said Friday that Wilson may be in the area, and they are working together with the Frisco City, AL, Police Department.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Jakera Latoya Wilson should call the Escambia County (FL) Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620 or their local law enforcement agency.
She is described as black female, about 5-foot, 6-inches tall, 130 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.
More Florida Firefighters Being Deployed Out West
August 10, 2013
The state is sending 40 more firefighters out west to battle ongoing wildfires.
On Saturday, the Florida Forest Service firefighters will fly to Salt Lake City, at which point they will be assigned to one of five areas in Oregon, California or Idaho, where blazes have raged in some areas for a couple of weeks. The Florida firefighters, members of two Initial Attack Hand Crews, will be expected to help create fire breaks and fire lines around the wildfires.
The latest deployment brings to 68 the number of Florida Forest Service fire personnel sent to help with the western fires. Four of those fire fighters are from the local Blackwater District.
Pictured: The “Douglas Complex” fire tops a hill, part of over 10,000 acres burned in the Oregon wildfire. Photo courtesy Oregon Department of Forestry for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Work Continues On Nine Mile Road
August 10, 2013
Construction work is continuing on Nine Mile Road from the Fox Run Subdivision to the Escambia River Bridge. Crews are currently constructing median curbs and making gutter modifications.
Motorists can expect paving operations on the east and westbound lanes and side road turnouts as crews continue to lay the final layer of asphalt between Highway 29 and Chisholm Road. Drainage work and sod placement continues throughout the project west to Highway 29. Lane closures will be in effect 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Construction activities are weather dependent and may be delayed or re-scheduled in the event of inclement weather. Motorists are reminded by the Florida Department of Transportation to watch for traffic flaggers, pay attention to the speed limit when traveling through the construction area, and to use caution when driving in work zones.
Pictured: Nine Mile Road at Pine Forest Road. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Florida Government Weekly Roundup
August 10, 2013
State officials — and protesters camped out on the first floor of the Capitol trying to get their attention — are making sure that the normally sluggish Tallahassee summer isn’t, at least for reporters.
Florida universities Chancellor Frank Brogan and state Rep. Mike Fasano are bidding bye-bye to Tallahassee, adding to the list of job openings in the capital.
The man with the million-dollar smile, Brogan, announced he’s headed to Pennsylvania, and he’s taking almost that much cash, thanks to state taxpayers, with him. His departure comes less than a week after Education Commissioner Tony Bennett abruptly resigned, leaving the state’s top two schools spots vacant.
And Gov. Rick Scott sent perennial pot-stirrer Fasano packing to Pasco, where he’s now the county tax collector. More than a few Republicans, along with utility and insurance-industry lobbyists, likely did private happy dances over the switch, although publicly many of those elected officials he poked heaped praise on the populist.
The sit-in outside Scott’s office rolled into its third week, with rapper Talib Kweli joining the slumber party Thursday.
Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting gave the demonstrators a larger, if unwilling, audience, to hear their complaints. Scott and the Cabinet didn’t address any of the Dream Defenders’ concerns, but they did sign off on a year-long excavation for human remains at a closed Panhandle reform school.
BRO-GONE
After four years as the state’s top university official, Brogan will head up the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education starting Oct. 1. Brogan’s five-year contract with the Florida Board of Governors would have expired in in September 2014, and his participation in the state’s deferred retirement system, or DROP, was set to run out in August 2015.
“I really felt as though I would be looking for opportunities over the final year,” Brogan told reporters during a conference call Wednesday. “But I didn’t know one would appear so quickly.”
Brogan’s getting a nearly $30,000 haircut with his new $327,500 salary in the Keystone State. But that’s a drop in the bucket compared to what he’ll be taking with him. Brogan will receive a $622,109.45 lump sum payout when he officially separates from the state next month. And he’ll rake in more than $16,000 a month — $192,000 a year — in other state pension benefits.
Brogan started as a schoolteacher in Stuart and served as Martin County schools superintendent before winning election as the state education commissioner in 1994. Four years later, he ran alongside Gov. Jeb Bush as lieutenant governor, a job he held through the next election. He left the first floor of the Capitol in 2002 to become president of Florida Atlantic University. Brogan stayed at the Boca Raton school until the BOG hired him as chancellor in 2009.
Capitol insiders may best remember Brogan for his role in the press skits as Jeb Bush’s court jester. On a Segway.
No word yet on who Brogan’s successor will be, but we know it won’t be Senate President Don Gaetz. The Panama City News-Herald reported that Gaetz, a former Okaloosa County schools superintendent, told a local Rotary Club he didn’t want that job or the education commissioner spot.
FASANO IN THE REAR VIEW
Mike Fasano’s up-and-down career as a state lawmaker has presumably come to an end, at least for now. First elected to the Legislature in 1994, the New Port Richey Republican spent eight years in the House followed by a decade in the Senate before returning to the House last year. Scott tapped Fasano, 55, as Pasco County property appraiser to replace Mike Olson, a Democrat who died in June.
Fasano, a one-time hard-core conservative and ardent supporter of Charlie Crist, became a thorn-in-the-side to the GOP in both chambers, frequently defying leadership and openly criticizing his Republican colleagues — including Scott — on pocketbook issues including property insurance and utility rates.
“#Best #Appointment #Ever,” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, tweeted after Tuesday’s announcement.
Last year, Fasano incurred the wrath of then-Senate President Mike Haridopolos for helping to kill a massive prison privatization proposal. Haridopolos stripped him of a powerful post as chairman of the criminal justice budget committee, but Fasano didn’t back away from his anti-privatization crusade.
Siding with Democrats this year, Fasano publicly chastised House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, for failing to go along with an expansion of the Medicaid program.
Fasano also pointed the finger at Scott for failing to convince lawmakers to expand Medicaid and clashed with the governor over Scott’s initial opposition to a prescription-drug monitoring program and the state’s failure to fund it.
“Here’s what you like about Sen. Fasano,” Scott said Tuesday when reporters asked him about the appointment. “He’s passionate. He cares about our state and he cares about his constituents. He’s going to be very customer-oriented.”
Fasano, who for years ended every conversation with “God bless,” frequently targeted insurers, especially the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., for high premiums and inadequate coverage, including problems with sinkhole coverage in his district.
Fasano’s recent discord with GOP leaders was a shift from his early career when the party loyalist helped Gov. Jeb Bush push through the elimination of the intangibles tax.
“It’s been almost 20 years and the Florida Legislature has changed,” Fasano said Tuesday. “Or Mike Fasano has changed, or maybe it’s a combination of the two.”
Fasano’s at-times harsh criticism was also in conflict with the aura he generated inside his softly-lit Capitol offices, where the strains of classical music constantly played in the background.
CABINET APPROVES DOZIER EXCAVATIONS
Scott and the Florida Cabinet put an end to a dispute over the excavation of the remains of boys who died at a former Panhandle reform school, signing off on a year-long dig at the shuttered Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.
Attorney General Pam Bondi led the charge to allow University of South Florida researchers to dig for reportedly unaccounted-for bodies of boys who died between 1900 and 1952 at the school after Secretary of State Ken Detzner refused the researchers’ request for a permit, saying he lacked the authority to approve it.
“We’re not exactly sure what happened there, but we know it wasn’t good,” Bondi said. “We have to look at our history…We have to go back, we know there are unmarked graves currently on that property that deserve a proper burial. It’s the right thing to do.”
As a handful of former residents of the school looked on Tuesday, Scott and the Cabinet OK’d a land-use agreement with the Department of Environmental Protection. Some local officials had urged Scott to deny USF’s request to continue the excavation, saying the publicity would be bad for local tourism.
Robert Strayley, 66, was among the people who attended the Cabinet meeting. He said he was sent to the school after running away repeatedly from his Tampa home, and recalled the beatings he and other youngsters received during his 10-month stay that started in 1963.
“This is a historic moment for Florida because they reached into a past for Florida that was so dark that nobody wants to talk about it,” he said.
Lawmakers included $190,000 in this year’s state budget to cover the cost of the research, determine the causes of death, identify remains, locate potential family members and cover the costs for re-interment.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Florida Chancellor Frank Brogan leaves his position for a similar spot in Pennsylvania after four years as head of the state university system.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Good luck Rep. Fasano! I’m going to mail you a ‘Let’s get to work’ bumper sticker.” — Tweet by Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, after learning that Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, would be leaving the Florida House because Gov. Rick Scott appointed him as Pasco County tax collector.
By Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida